Dog Treats

This week we catered to our loyal, loving dogs by making homemade dog treats. I think we all agreed that while this was fun, it was slightly disappointing not having something for us humans to taste, that is unless we snuck a piece of bacon while prepping this recipe.

Speculoos

This week's cookie, Speculoos, was a joy for everyone to make, and to eat. According to TK, it's a spice cookie popular in the Netherlands and Belgium. Most people probably haven't heard of it, unless they've tried Biscoff spread. This spread has a bit of a cult following, and it's made from speculoos cookies. It's kind of the Belgian equivalent of Nutella.
All our bakers enjoyed this cookie, and after many weeks of rolling out cookie dough, we're all getting much better at it. We're also getting more and more creative with our photos, as you will see.

Shortbread

This week we made shortbread cookies. Sure it doesn't have an exciting name like TKO or Better Nutter but this humble, simple recipe shines. For a beginning baker especially, this is a great recipe to start with as it foolproof. Just a couple of notes, one being that the dough has to chill for at least an hour and second that it is a little crumbly when rolling out but not difficult to work with. These cookies got a resounding Yes! from all the bakers. See what each of them had to say below.

TKOs

Happy New Year! Our first recipe of the new year is Thomas Keller's version of another childhood classic- Oreos. 

Once again, TK has elevated the treat we all know and love to a more refined, elegant version. This recipe called for some specialized ingredients, so our team worked together to find and share them. The most unique ingredient was cocoa noir, or black cocoa powder. It's much darker and more bitter than most cocoa powders, but it really made a difference in the color and taste. Most of our bakers had a hard time with the same techniques, such as the white chocolate ganache filling and rolling out the dough thinly. It's encouraging when you find out others have had the same issues, that it's just not you. Overall, our bakers agreed that these were delicious cookies, despite the difficulties in the baking process.

Update: This recipe was featured in Serious Eats so we will share it with you here